This post is sponsored by OXO, a year long partner of Heartbeet Kitchen. Their kitchen supplies have been and continue to be influential in Amanda’s cooking.

I like coffee. A lot. Mostly black with a little cream and a little honey.

I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve ordered anything other than that, or an americano, when at a coffee shop. I find speciality drinks lean too far on the sweet side, filled with highly processed syrups and such. At home is a different story though! Much like food, I enjoy the chance to be creative and have control over the quality of ingredients going into the recipe.

Which is where this Cold Brew Mocha comes in. Smooth, bold, and chocolatey. A caffeinated boost and deliciously refreshing.

I hadn’t fallen in love with cold brew until this summer. I blame it on coffee shops that turn their air conditioners to an arctic blast level, making an iced drink the last thing on the menu I want. And I wasn’t sure what was involved in making it at home, so I just stuck with my hot pour over.

Come to find out that cold brew is definitely the easiest of all coffee methods I’ve tried! (Different from iced coffee, cold brew is highly concentrated coffee, steeped overnight – while iced coffee is simply regular hot coffee poured over ice, that ends up becoming diluted and bland. Cold brew has a low-acid, smooth taste compared to other brewing methods.)

Since it’s basically just coffee beans and water, there are a few important things that you should consider in order to get the quality of coffee you desire.

1. Measuring Your Coffee Beans and Water by Weight: For the best tasting coffee, it’s important to weigh both your beans and water by weight (I do grams) so that you are brewing the correct ratio (I typically do cold brew at a 1:3 coffee to water ratio).

Guessing, or even measuring by “cups/tablespoons/etc”, can be quite inaccurate.

2. Your Grinder: I used to have one of $20 blade coffee grinders and thought as long as it ground the coffee nice and fine, I was good to go. Truth is, you have zero control over the grind size (so keep it for spices!). Coffee needs to be ground precisely to the right size to extract flavors correctly, which is all dependent on the method of brewing you are using. For cold brew, you’ll need a coarse grind, which allows for a slow transfer of extraction and avoids the cold brew becoming bitter. Grinding too fine will over extract leading to a harsh and bitter result. Too large of a grind and the brew is underdeveloped and weak.

The OXO Conical Burr Grinder makes this part of the equation so easy, and fast. It basically has the brain of a barista so you don’t have to think, integrated into one machine. First you’ll twist the dial to the grind size you need it – it does everything from espresso fine to very coarse. Then, with a built in scale, all you need to do is simply know how much coffee you want to grind, set the dial to that number, and grind. The machine will automatically stop when that amount of coffee is in the canister. The stainless steel burr protects flavor by creating a uniform grind size and minimizing heat.

3. Brewing System: The one negative to making cold brew is that it can get kind of messy, having to find a contraption large enough soak the grounds in, draining it, and then cleaning it out. The other important piece is gently saturating the grounds, rather than pouring all the water on them at once.

OXO has a new Cold Brew Coffee (and tea!) Maker that I found incredibly efficient and well designed. Similar to the burr grinder, it makes the process effortless. Just add grounds and water to the top, then steep overnight. The result? Coffee concentrate at the flip of a switch. The Rainmaker™ evenly distributes water over the grounds. It strains into the sleek glass carafe which has measurement markings for portioning, and can be easily stored in your fridge. Plus, the filter is stainless steel so can be used over and over again! And to clean out the stubborn grounds, this silicone Coffee Grounds Scoop is a savior.

4. Storing Your Beans: The two main things that cause coffee beans to lose their freshness are air and light, making it very important to have a proper storage container. I use this one from OXO, which has a genius “pop top” that seals the container to keep out air and moisture. Additionally, the container is made with UV blocking technology to keep light out.

Alright, now that you’re on your way to making the best cold brew, let’s step through the best iced mocha recipe. All you need are 3 simple ingredients, so make sure they’re the best quality your budget allows.

Half cold brew, half chocolate milk, 100% delicious. A wholesome indulgence, no need for syrups, or espresso (in fact, I tried it both ways and found the coffee-milk combination to be superior). I did drizzle dark chocolate on the inside of each glass to give it a little flair though. 💗

3 thoughts on “3 Ingredient Cold Brew Mocha + How to Make Cold Brew at Home”

I cannot believe I have never tried making my own cold brew! I thought it would be weirdly complicated for some reason, but it’s so so simple. I love the idea of a less-sweet, super flavorful mocha. Can’t wait to try this! Love the photos, as always <3

Your decoration is so gorgeous so the mocha must be good! I’m going to try this soon as mocha is one of my fav. Btw, does black coffee really work with honey? I’ve never done that before!!
– Natalie Ellis